Conventional integrated circuits are fabricated utilizing a number of basic processing steps such as deposition, doping, etching, photolithography and the like. The processes are utilized to form various device structures, such as gates, drains, sources and the like, that makeup a given integrated circuit. Continued advancements in semiconductor fabrication techniques enable continued improvements in device structure of the integrated circuits.
Improvements in the device structure results in improved devices. For example, reducing the channel length of a transistor may result in increased switching speed, reduced power consumption and the like. In the conventional art, processes such as doping, photolithography and the like typically determine the minimum feature size of device structures. For example, a photolithography process typically defines the source and drain regions and therefore the channel length of a transistor.
However, the minimum feature size of structures formed utilizing a photolithography process has reached a limit due to the wavelength of the light used to activate the photoresist. Accordingly, continued scaling of semiconductor devices has become problematic.